Sweeping Zen » Bankeihttp://sweepingzen.com
The Who's Who of Zen BuddhismSat, 21 Mar 2015 14:49:49 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Bankei Yotakuhttp://sweepingzen.com/bankei-yotaku-bio/
http://sweepingzen.com/bankei-yotaku-bio/#commentsTue, 22 Dec 2009 18:48:13 +0000http://touchpointe.net/sweepingzen/?p=211Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen Master who constantly encouraged audiences to abide in the Unborn Buddha Mind. He had a great impact on Zen during his day, giving public talks to anyone and everyone willing to listen. Born to a samurai family of Confucian scholars, Bankei was rebellious in his youth and ...

]]>Bankei Yotaku (1622-1693) was a Japanese Rinzai Zen Master who constantly encouraged audiences to abide in the Unborn Buddha Mind. He had a great impact on Zen during his day, giving public talks to anyone and everyone willing to listen. Born to a samurai family of Confucian scholars, Bankei was rebellious in his youth and rejected Confucianism at an early age and was kicked out of his family home at age eleven. He lived in a small hut nearby and, on a slat of wood hanging over its entrance, etched the words Practice Hermitage.

While it is likely Bankei’s first introduction to Zen came through Shin Buddhism, at age fifteen he began training at a Shingon temple (Japanese Tantric Buddhism) and studied the sutras. Unsatisfied with the Shingon approach, he left a year after having enteredthe practice. Filled with much doubt, Bankei went on to study with various masters of the Zen tradition, including Umpo Zenjo and the Chinese monk Tao-che Ch’ao-yuan. Although he received inka from Tao-che and was a Dharma heir of Umpo, Bankei fashioned himself as self-enlightened. He did come to establish temples and accept disciples upon the dying wishes of Umpo, though he never named a successor.

The following is a passage from a sermon given by Bankei in 1690 at Ryomonji in Hyogo Prefecture.

“When your parents gave you life, there wasn’t a trace of selfish desire, bad habits or self-centerednesss. But from the age of four or five you picked up the mean things you saw other people do and the bad things you heard them say, so that gradually as you matured, growing up badly, you developed selfish desire, which in turn produced self-centeredness. Deluded by this self-centeredness, you then proceeded to create every sort of evil. If it weren’t for being centered on yourself, delusions would not arise. When delusions do not arise, that is none other than abiding in the Unborn Buddha Mind…”